Good Eats, Good Friends, Good Drinks, Good Music!

Even though we still haven't seen everyone we need and want to see we've managed to meet up with a number. First stop for me was Viola's in Los Alamos to have dinner with my good friend Paul and eat GREEN CHILI! Of course we've had some great meals with Donna & Tom - Donna's cooking is always good! And then there are the "rents" - Don & Nina - who are staying at Nancy's. We've had two really good meals there and as always have enjoyed the company. Last night they managed to pull off a surprise; very early birthday celebration on Trox. We've also caught up with Doug & Ingrun R. First time was at their home where Ingrun cooked a WONDERFUL meal of pasta and prawns. It was a lot of fun seeing their home and as expected Ingrun is a marvelous cook. Doug made us "coffees" to go with our desserts. He roasts his own beans and as expected it was YUMMY - made the long drive back to Donna & Tom's much easier with that little (?) hit of caffeine.

Last week we managed to get down to Santa Fe to have dinner at the Second Street Brewery. Our friend Doug R. has a blog for open mike night and he plays a mean sax with the house band.

Well worth going if you are in the area on Wednesday night. Check out Doug's Second Streeet Brewery Blog. A number of friends stopped by to join us. Among them were Doug T. - a long time friend who actually introduced us many years ago.

Doug T and Trox

Also sitting at our table were Evelyn and Joseph, Susan, and Jennifer all of who worked with Trox.

A good end to a fun ride!

Here comes Clyde!

Jason and Deb - THAT was fun!

John's back!

That kind of ride deserves a beer!

Now, that we're back - where the hell were we?

They all made it back in essentially one piece!

Exploring the Continental Divide Trail (CDT)

Riding part of the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) has been executed in spurts! First one was from our campsite at Hopewell Lake (N36 42.014 W106 14.048) where it took Trox a while to actually find the trail. That ride was almost 30 miles and took him just short of 7 hours - needless to say when he rode back into camp he was pretty bushed. A shower, dinner, and bed followed.

The next section was done a few days later after we had moved to Trujillo Meadows up on the Cumbres Pass. We camped in a really nice campground (N37 02.488 W106 27.072) at over 10,000 ft. This second section was a group ride with our friends John & Jean as well a some other great riders ... Jason, Deb, Clyde, and Kenny. It was an 18 mile plus ride taking about 6 hours. It was followed by a fun dinner in Chama. And, hey, Clyde, Trox tells me you might have some really great photos - hope you will share them with us. The marker labeled "for Clyde" has a lat/long of N37 02.730 W106 30.752 and was 11,327 feet ASL.

Then next day on our way back to the Jemez, Trox did another section starting just north of the Echo Amphitheater by the Shrine to the Virgin Mary. Starting point was right along the highway at N36 24.111 W106 29.685.

The profiles on these three rides all looked similar --- LOTS of UPHILL!

Where we've been

We've been on the move since we got to New Mexico. Here's a map showing the highlights.

A: Donna & Tom's in the Jemez
B: Los Alamos NM
C: Santa Fe NM
D: Lamy NM
E: Hopewell Lake N36 42.014 W106 14.04
F: Trujillo Meadows on top of Cumbres Pass in Colorado N37 02.488 W106 27.072
G: Chama NM
H: Nancy's in Cuyamungue NM
I: Doug & Ingrun's (the balloon is hiding behind "H")
J: White Mesa

Many of Trox' rides have started from Donna & Tom's although we just got back from the Chama area where he was able to do 4 or 5 rides (more to come about that) checking out the Continental Divide Trail. Enough for now - Trox just arrived so I gotta run and go have dinner at Nancy's!

Ride 8.17.2010

Kolt-Fm N35 46.819 W106 31.617

Trox did another solo ride on the 17th. This one was almost 20 miles. While he was slogging his way up hill I was in "town" at the gym and going to lunch. The picture here shows the radio/tv towers he got to. They are marked on the trail map.

Ride 8.15.2010

Today John & Jean joined Trox on a great ride. 17+ miles from Donna & Tom's up to Cerro Pelado and back. Some of it done in pouring down rain!

These pics were taken at the top - notice the storm in the background towards "home". They got back to the house soaking wet, cold, muddy, and in good moods!

We all enjoyed a dinner of hamburgers, pasta, salad, and a wonderful dessert! We are hoping to do another get together --- maybe in Chama next weekend.

Ride 8.13.2010

Looking towards Redondo from lookout

Trox did another ride today --- up to the lookout on Cerro Pelado

Ride 8/12/2010

Trox went on a bike ride in the Jemez. He didn't come home with any pictures but LOTS of mud.

First hike in the Jemez

Hiked up to Jemez Falls yesterday. Nice 3 or 4 mile hike.

arrived in new mexico

We arrived in New Mexico this afternoon and are staying in the Jemez at Donna & Tom's. I really like the Jemez this time a year because it is COOL!

on the road

We actually got out of Sheridan --- heading south. Left yesterday about 6 PM and made it to Casper. From there we made it to Colorado Springs. I had enough points on my Hilton Honors account that tonight we are staying for free in a Homewood Suites room near the Colorado Springs airport. Had a nice dinner followed by a wonderful shower. Next will be  a good sleep. Tomorrow we head for the Jemez and Donna & Tom's house. Not sure how long we'll stay there but at least long enough for Trox to get the generator working which we discovered had died when we tried to make coffee this morning.

AND! Not only do we have our visas we have our tickets. We leave for Australia (Melbourne) on 14 September!

ALMOST

Trox just left with the last load to the storage unit --- hopefully it will all fit. I am organizing stuff to load in the THE RIG so we can head for New Mexico. Of course, the plans have changed. We are going to have everything staged for THE RIG in the garage ... head for Billings this afternoon to drop off the truck and then tomorrow on our way thru pick up the stuff from the garage and then we'll be OFF!

visas

WE GOT OUR VISAS! we got our visas! We got our visas!!!! AND if we work it right they are good for TWO years!

Murphy is alive and well!

If anyone was wondering ... Murphy is alive and well (too well if you ask me). If it can go wrong it has! We thought, from reading Australia's website, that it would take a day or two at the most to get our visas. So, we applied when we had a pretty firm date in mind just to be told it would be more like 2 WEEKS! So, now we are waiting on our visas hoping that the prices of the plane tickets won't sky rocket.


We were hoping to have our appraisal by last week and we FINALLY got it done today although he won't have a dollar figure until Friday so hopefully Murphy won't strike at the price as well as the timing. Murphy has attacked other little things too but we are hoping he is getting tired of us and has moved on to someone else.

We DID find a place to store my truck for the year (thanks to my cousin, C.R.) ... inside AND cheap so we won't have to worry about it while we are gone. The only problem is (Murphy again) we have to drive it up to Billings and we thought we had made our last trip up there last week. Oh, well.

The plan (now) is to leave here and drive to Billings Thursday afternoon and then leave Billings and head south for New Mexico on Friday. Should put us there on Saturday or Sunday.

visas!

Applied for our visas and our applications have been "accepted" but we won't know about our visas for 2 to 10 days or more ... takes so long because we want to stay a year!

Billings MT

We just got back from Billings where we went yesterday. Family barbecue was enjoyed by all! It was WAY too hot to eat outside but then it rained and cooled it off so we were all able to enjoy C.R. and Josie's patio and Cammie's potato salad! We said good bye to all (well many of them anyway) the Montana relatives and then headed back to Wyoming to finish packing!

We think we've sold the '80 Toyota to Sheridan friends! Now, all we have to do is sell the '05 Tacoma.